At their final meeting, selectmen wrap things up

KENT — The current trio of selectmen held their final board meeting on Tuesday, Nov. 15. Selectmen Karen Garrity and George Jacobs are stepping down. Re-elected First Selectman Bruce Adams and newly elected Selectmen Tod Jones and Mary Susi Williams were sworn in on Nov. 22.Kent resident Catherine Bachrach thanked the selectmen for their service to the town. She also thanked the selectmen, Emergency Management Director Tony Amon and the town crews for their work during the recent early snowstorm. She thanked the fire department for keeping the generator at Templeton Farm Apartments senior housing facility running during the extended power outage, which provided heat and hot water for residents.“Survival during and after the storm was a town-wide effort,” Adams said. “Everyone pitched in to do what needed to be done.” The fire department and ambulance squad “were terrific,” he said.Adams said there will be some kind of recognition ceremony for all the people who helped out.The Community House renovations are mostly complete and awaiting final inspection before an official reopening, Adams reported. The selectmen approved spending up to $4,000 to complete the floors in the Community House.Adams announced that Kent is now number one in a state wide “e-waste” recycling program. When the contest results are certified, the town will get a $3,000 scholarship to award to a local student, and a renovation of the transfer station (details were vague on what would be included in what was described as a “remake”).There has been a request for a tax incentive/abatement for the former Cyberian Outpost building. Adams said he has not pushed that because he has mixed feelings about giving one. He also reported the Board of Finance is not “excited” about doing so.Garrity reported the Senior Tax Abatement Committee met and will present findings to the Board of Finance. “The senior tax abatement program has three objectives,” she explained. One is to see that the town gets taxes it is due. The second is to see that elderly residents get to live in their homes as long as possible. And three is to see that, when affordable housing stock is no longer used by the resident, the home will revert to affordable housing.Adams reported that state police are still investigating a case of someone who is not a town employee writing a letter on town stationery.And he thanked First Light (which owns the hydroplant there) for paying for the installation of new lights in the covered bridge at Bull’s Bridge.